This Sporting Life writer David Storey has died

Wakefield-born Storey made his writing debut with the much-acclaimed novel This Sporting Life in 1960.

It was based on his previous experience as a rugby league player for the former Leeds RLFC.

Storey became internationally-recognised when the book was turned into a film three years later.

It featured locations including Wakefield Trinity’s then Belle Vue stadium and Westgate in the city centre..

The son of a mineworker, Storey was raised in the city in the 1930s and attended the Wakefield School of Art before moving to London to study at the Slade School of Fine Art.

He went on to work as a farm labourer, showground tent installer and professional rugby league player before turning his hand to writing novels and plays.

His other novels included Flight into Camden and Passmore, and in 1976 Storey won the Booker prize for Saville, which told the story of a boy growing up in a Yorkshire mining village.

Storey was also a talented artist and a selection of his work went on show for the first time last year at The Hepworth, Wakefield gallery.

The exhibition included hundreds of his drawings created from 2006 to 2012 and a small selection of earlier works, as well as his books, archive posters of his theatre productions and films, and personal photographs.